Incentivizing user generated content creation

ABSTRACT

Systems, methods, and machine-readable media for incentivizing user generated content creation are provided. One or more points of interest for including in a notification to a user may be identified based on a location of a client device associated with the user and/or user interest signals. The identified points of interest may be scored by comparing the user interest signals, and a most relevant point of interest may be identified from the scored points of interest. A notification type may be determined based on the most relevant point of interest and the corresponding user interest signal, and used to provide to the user a notification including the most relevant point of interest and the user interest signal. A subsequent notification asking the user to generate content for the most relevant point of interest may be sent, in a case it is determined that the user acts on the provided notification.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 13/937,094, filed on Jul. 8, 2013, the disclosure of which isincorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present description relates generally to social networking, and moreparticularly, but not exclusively, to incentivizing user generatedcontent creation.

BACKGROUND

For a rich online experience, user generated content is quite important.User generated content may include, but is not limited to, photographs,reviews, information about where a user has checked in, and the placeshe or she has visited. Online experiences that are location-based mayrely on user generated content even more heavily than other onlineexperiences. For example, when people go online to find the nearestplace of interest (e.g., a restaurant, a cafe, a bar, a store, etc.)near their current location, for instance when they are travelling, theymay be interested in knowing whether a friend is visiting that place atthat time or has already been at that place, or to see reviews about theplace. As the number of places stored in location databases grows, theneed for crowd sourcing generation of content related to the storedplaces increases. Therefore, incentivizing user generated content mayplay a significant role in providing an enriched online experience for avast population of online users.

SUMMARY

The subject disclosure relates generally to social networking, and moreparticularly to incentivizing the creation of user generated content.

According to one or more aspects of the subject technology, a computerimplemented method for incentivizing creation of user-generated contentmay include identifying one or more points of interest for including ina notification to a user based on a location of a client deviceassociated with the user or user interest signals that associate thepoints of interest with the user. Each of the identified one or morepoints of interest may be scored by comparing the user interest signalsof the identified one or more points of interest used to identify theone or more points of interest. A most relevant point of interest may beidentified from the scored one or more points of interest. Anotification type may be determined that corresponds to the mostrelevant point of interest and the user interest signal associated withthe most relevant point of interest. A notification may be generatedthat includes the most relevant point of interest and the user interestsignal, according to the determined notification type. The generatednotification may be provided to the user. A determination may be made ofwhether the user acts on the provided notification. A subsequentnotification may be sent asking the user to generate content for themost relevant point of interest, in a case the user acts on the providednotification.

According to one or more aspects of the subject technology, a system forincentivizing creation of user-generated content may include memory tostore instructions and a processor configured to execute theinstructions to perform the following acts: identifying one or morepoints of interest for including in a notification to a user based atleast on a location of a client device associated with the user or userinterest signals that associate the points of interest with the user;scoring each of the identified one or more points of interest bycomparing the user interest signals of the identified one or more pointsof interest used to identify the one or more points of interest;identifying a most relevant point of interest from the scored one ormore points of interest; determining a notification type thatcorresponds to the most relevant point of interest and the user interestsignal associated with the most relevant point of interest; generating anotification including the most relevant point of interest and the userinterest signal, according to the determined notification type;providing the generated notification to the user; determining whetherthe user acts on the provided notification; and sending a subsequentnotification asking the user to generate content for the most relevantpoint of interest, in a case the user acts on the provided notification.

According to one or more aspects of the subject technology, anon-transitory machine-readable medium may include instructions storedtherein, which when executed by a machine, cause the machine to performthe following operations: identifying one or more points of interest forincluding in a notification to a user based at least on a location of aclient device associated with the user or user interest signals thatassociate the points of interest with the user; scoring each of theidentified one or more points of interest by comparing the user interestsignals of the identified one or more points of interest used toidentify the one or more points of interest; identifying a most relevantpoint of interest from the scored one or more points of interest;determining a notification type that corresponds to the most relevantpoint of interest and the user interest signal associated with the mostrelevant point of interest; generating a notification including the mostrelevant point of interest and the user interest signal, according tothe determined notification type; providing the generated notificationto the user; determining whether the user acts on the providednotification; and sending a subsequent notification asking the user togenerate content for the most relevant point of interest, in a case theuser acts on the provided notification.

According to one or more aspects of the subject technology, a computerimplemented method for incentivizing creation of user-generated contentmay include identifying one or more points of interest for including ina notification to a user based on metadata associated with the user.Each of the identified one or more points of interest may be scoredbased on the user interest signals. A most relevant point of interestmay be identified from the scored one or more points of interest. Anotification type may be determined that corresponds to the mostrelevant point of interest and the user interest signal associated withthe most relevant point of interest. A notification may be generatedthat includes the most relevant point of interest and the user interestsignal, according to the determined notification type. The generatednotification may be provided to the user. A determination may be made ofwhether the user acts on the provided notification. A subsequentnotification may be sent asking the user to generate content for themost relevant point of interest, in a case the user acts on the providednotification.

According to one or more aspects of the subject technology, a system forincentivizing creation of user-generated content may include memory tostore instructions and a processor configured to execute theinstructions to perform the following acts: identifying one or morepoints of interest for including in a notification to a user based onmetadata associated with the user; scoring each of the identified one ormore points of interest based on the user interest signals; identifyinga most relevant point of interest from the scored one or more points ofinterest; determining a notification type that corresponds to the mostrelevant point of interest and the user interest signal associated withthe most relevant point of interest; generating a notification includingthe most relevant point of interest and the user interest signal,according to the determined notification type; providing the generatednotification to the user; determining whether the user acts on theprovided notification; and sending a subsequent notification asking theuser to generate content for the most relevant point of interest, in acase the user acts on the provided notification.

It is understood that other configurations of the subject technologywill become readily apparent from the following detailed description,where various configurations of the subject technology are shown anddescribed by way of illustration. As will be realized, the subjecttechnology is capable of other and different configurations and itsseveral details are capable of modification in various other respects,all without departing from the scope of the subject technology.Accordingly, the drawings and detailed description are to be regarded asillustrative in nature and not as restrictive.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide furtherunderstanding and are incorporated in and constitute a part of thisspecification, illustrate disclosed aspects and together with thedescription serve to explain the principles of the disclosed aspects.

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an example of a networkenvironment for incentivizing user generated content creation, inaccordance with one or more aspects of the subject technology.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a system forincentivizing user generated content creation, in accordance with one ormore aspects of the subject technology.

FIG. 3A is a map illustrating examples of points of interest in vicinityof a user location for user generated content creation, in accordancewith one or more aspects of the subject technology.

FIG. 3B is a table illustrating an example of scoring of points ofinterest of FIG. 3A for user generated content creation, in accordancewith one or more aspects of the subject technology.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating an example of a method forincentivizing user generated content creation, in accordance with one ormore aspects of the subject technology.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating an example of a method forincentivizing user generated content creation, in accordance with one ormore aspects of the subject technology.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating an example of a method forincentivizing user generated content creation, in accordance with one ormore aspects of the subject technology.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are setforth to provide a full understanding of the present disclosure. It willbe apparent, however, that the implementations of the present disclosuremay be practiced without some of these specific details. In otherinstances, structures and techniques have not been shown in detail so asnot to obscure the disclosure.

Methods and systems for incentivizing user generated content (UGC)creation are provided herein. A user's interest in a place such as, forexample, a restaurant or a bar (e.g., a point of interest) may beidentified from the user's own activity such as indicating in a mapapplication that a particular place is interesting to the user. A usermay indicate such interest by placing a star or another symbol on agraphic user element representing a point of interest. The points ofinterest may be associated with a review site profile or a socialnetwork profile. A point of interest may also be identified based on anactivity of a user's contact as well as distance between the user andthe point of interest. For example, when a user's contact is visiting abar that is close to the user, the bar may be considered a point ofinterest for the user.

The user may be incentivized to create UGC, for example, by providingthe user with information that can motivate the user to visit a place(e.g., a point of interest, such as business) and spend some time inthat place. For instance, the information may be related to a place thatthe user is interested in, a contact (e.g., a friend) of the user hasrecommended that place to the user, or a contact of the user has justuploaded one or more photos of the place to a UGC platform (e.g., asocial media site). The information may include interesting visualinformation such as images, videos, or pictures of or related to theplace that can encourage the user to visit the place. The informationmay also relate to an event (e.g., a performance, a concert, a sale,etc.) that is planned to take place in a location near the user. In oneor more aspects, a contest for providing content regarding one or moreplaces, for which there is a need for UGC may motivate people to createUGC.

Whether the user is stationary or on the move may also be consideredwhen identifying points of interest. For example, a radius may be usedto determine whether or not a point of interest is near the user. Theradius may vary depending on the rate/mode of travel of the user. Forexample, if the rate of travel may indicate that the user is in anautomobile, a larger radius may be used than if the rate of travelsuggests that the user is walking. The points of interest near a usermay be scored based on a number of criteria to determine a most relevantpoint of interest that can be included in a notification to the user.The user may act on the notification that may prompt a server to send asubsequent notification to the user asking the user to generate contentrelating to the most relevant point of interest, as described in greaterdetail herein.

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an example of a networkenvironment 100 for incentivizing user generated content creation, inaccordance with one or more aspects of the subject technology. Thenetwork environment 100 includes a server 130, a client device 120(e.g., a portable communication device, such as a mobile phone)associated with a user 110, a client application 115 running on theclient device 120, and a data store 140 communicatively linked togetherand to other servers, systems, and devices via a network 150. The server130 may be a stand-alone server or a group of servers maintained by anentity (e.g., a corporation, a data center, etc.). The server 130 maysupport one or more services offered by the client application 115. Forexample, the server 130 may provide location services, to the clientapplication 115. The location services may include receiving locationinformation 125 of the client device 120 and providing to the clientdevice 120 the location information 135 relating to one or more pointsof interest (e.g., restaurants, bars, cafes, sports clubs, stores,shopping centers, etc.) that are located near the current location ofthe client device 120.

In one or more implementations, The client application 115 may be asingle application or a number of applications that allow the user 110to perform a number of interactions with the client device 120, forexample, access one or more social media (e.g., Internet forums,weblogs, social blogs, podcasts, and social network sites), search alocation on a map, mark a location on the map, send invitations tocontacts (e.g., family, friends, etc.), provide reviews, etc. The datastore 140 may be part of the server 130 or a part of distributed datastores coupled through the network 150. The data store 140 may include avariety of information, such as a list of points of interest and foreach point of interest tables including a number of attributesincluding, but not limited to, location coordinates, a type (e.g.,restaurant, bar, business, sports, etc.), an address, a contactinformation, and reviews. The network environment 100 may facilitateincentivizing user generated content creation as disclosed herein. Forexample the server 130 may send notification 160 to the client device120 asking the user 110 to generate content related to a point ofinterest, as described in greater detail herein.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a system 200 forincentivizing user generated content creation, in accordance with one ormore aspects of the subject technology. The system 200 includes, but maynot be limited to, a communication module 210, a processor 220, a datastore 230, and memory 240 coupled together via a bus 235. The memory 240may store data and software modules, for example, an identificationmodule 242, a scoring module 244, and a notification module 246. Theidentification module 242, the scoring module 244, and the notificationmodule 246 may be executed by the processor 220. In one or more aspects,the functionality of the identification module 242, the scoring module244, and the notification module 246 may be implemented in hardware,such as a field-programmable gate array (FPGA).

The client device 120 may include any system or device having aprocessor, a memory, and communications capability for communicating viathe network 150. The client device 120 may include a global positioningsystem (GPS) module. The GPS module may provide location coordinates ofthe client device 120 in real time. In one or more aspects of thesubject technology, the location of the client device 120 may bedetermined by using cell signals, for example, via multi-lateration ofradio signals between a number of cell towers, network locationinformation such as IP address location, and/or wireless access pointlocation. The client device 120 may report the location coordinates ofthe client device 120 to the server 130 via the network 150. As notedabove, the subject technology determines and communicates locationinformation of the client device. Communication of location informationto other devices and/or servers may be enabled with user consent to doso. The location information may be encrypted while being communicatedto other devices and/or servers. Location notices may be used to informand remind users about the use of location information. The locationnotices may be presented during a device configuration process, during auser onboarding flow, as a persistent reminder within a user interfaceon the client device, and/or in periodic reminder messages. The locationinformation may be retained for only a limited period of time and usercontrols may be provided to manage the communication and retention oflocation information.

The identification module 242 may search the data store 230 or the datastore 140 to identify a number of points of interest for including in anotification (e.g., 160 of FIG. 1) to the client device 120. Theidentification of the points of interest may be based on locationinformation of the client device 120 (e.g., location coordinatesreceived from device 120) and one or more user interest signals.

The user interest signals may include an indication of an interaction bya contact associated with the user with the point of interest. Forexample, the interaction may include uploading a photo of the point ofinterest to social media, checking in at the point of interest, andreviewing and/or rating the point of interest. The user interest signalsmay further include an indication of a user's proximity to the point ofinterest. For example, the identification module 242 may compare thelocation coordinates of the point of interest retrieved from the datastores (e.g., 230 and/or 140) with the location coordinates of theclient device 120 to estimate a distance between the location of thepoint of interest and the current location of the client device 120. Inone or more aspects, the user interest signals may include anassociation with a user's online interest history, which is captured bythe server 130 and saved in the data store (e.g., 230 and/or 140). Theuser's online interest history may include showing interest in a placesuch as a point of interest by the user 110 some time in the past. Forexample, the user 110 may have indicated that he likes the point ofinterest or may have given a high rating or provided one or morepositive reviews for that point of interest.

Various types of user information have been identified for use in userinterest signals. The subject technology may limit or prevent thestorage and use of user information absent user consent. Users may beprovided with the opportunity to control the types of user informationstored and used as well as the duration over which user information maybe stored. User information may be encrypted while being stored. Usersalso may be provided with controls to manage and delete stored userinformation.

The scoring module 244 may score a number of points of interestidentified by the identification module 242. The scoring module 244 mayscore each of the identified points of interest by comparing the userinterest signals associated with that point of interest (e.g., used toidentify that point of interest). For example, the scoring module 244may score each of the identified points of interest by associating ascore to each of the identified one or more points of interest based ona number of parameters (as discussed in greater detail below). Theparameters may include, for example, an event associated with theidentified point of interest or being close to a place for which theuser provided a good review or being close to a place for which acontact of the user provided a good review. The parameters may furtherinclude a distance between the current location of the user and theidentified one or more points of interest, and the need as determined bythe server 130 for user generated content for the identified points ofinterest.

For example, an event associated with the identified point of interest(e.g., a place) may include current presence of a contact of the user110 in the point of interest, an indication that the user 110 had adesire to be at that place, for instance, by marking that place, or theclient device location being near a place that a contact of the user 110recommended to the user 110. In one or more aspects, the notificationmodule 246 may determine a need for a notification to the user 110 basedon the score associated with the most relevant point of interestexceeding a threshold. For example, if the score associated with a pointof interest is higher than the threshold or the point interest has thehighest score (e.g., the most relevant point of interest), thenotification module 246 may generate a notification for beingcommunicated to the user 110. The notification (e.g., 160 of FIG. 1) maybe of different type, for example, the notification may include an emailnotification, a short message service (SMS) notification, an audionotification, or knowledge card notification. The notification module246 may determine the type of the notification based on metadataassociated with the user 110. In one or more aspects, the metadata mayinclude the location of the client device 110 and the user interestsignals that associate the point of interest with the user 110.

In one or more implementations of the subject technology, thenotification module 246 may generate a notification that, for example,notifies the user 110 that a contact (e.g., a friend) of the user 110 isin a place (e.g., a point of interest) nearby. In one or more aspectsthat notification may ask the user 110 if she/he is interested in goingto that place. The notification may be communicated to the client device120 by the communication module 210. The client device 120 (e.g., amobile phone) may receive the notification, and the user 110 may use themobile phone to act on the notification. For example, the user 110 mayopen the notification, copy portions of the content of the notification,or perform a search related to the notification content. For instance,the user 110 may use the client application 115 to search an online mapfor the place. In one or more aspects, the user 110 may visit the pointof interest and spent some time in the point of interest.

The server 130 may be informed of the action of the user 110 on thenotification by the client application 115. The notification module 246may determine that the user 110 acted on the notification. In one ormore aspects, the server 130 may be able to determine whether the user110 visited the point of interest or stayed in the point of interest byexamining the location information provided by the client device 120.For example, if the provided location information does not show a changeof location for a period of time (e.g., approximately one hour), thatcan be interpreted that the user 110 spent the one hour at the point ofinterest. Following the determination, the notification module 246 maygenerate one or more subsequent notifications asking the user 110 togenerate content for the most relevant point of interest, for which thenotification was sent to the client device 120. The subsequentnotifications may be communicated to the client device 120 via thecommunication module 210. The subsequent notifications may ask the user110 to visit the place (e.g., the most relevant point of interest) andgenerate content for the place identified in the notification (e.g.,most relevant point of interest). In one or more aspects, the subsequentnotifications may prompt the user 110 to interact with the point ofinterest, for example, recommend the place or upload a picture of theplace. In other aspects, the user 110 may be requested by the subsequentnotification to check in and/or comment on the place using social media,or respond to a comment or check-in by a contact of the user 110. Thenature of the request may depend on a number of factors, such as thetime that the user 110 is spending in the place. For example, if theuser 110 is spending more than a few minutes (e.g., 15 minutes) in theplace, the user 110 may be motivated to take a picture of the place andupload the picture. If the user 110 spends a few hours in the place, theuser may be asked to provide a review for the place. In one or moreaspects, the client application 115 may receive the location informationof the point of interest (e.g., POI location information 125 of FIG. 1)from the server 130 and provide the information (e.g., on a map) to theuser 110.

Referring to server 130, the processor 220 may be a general-purposeprocessor (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU)), a graphics processingunit (GPU), a microcontroller, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), anApplication Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an FPGA, a ProgrammableLogic Device (PLD), a controller, a state machine, gated logic, discretehardware components, or any other suitable entity that can performcalculations or other manipulations of information. The memory 240 mayinclude random access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), static Ram(SRAM), flash memory, etc.

The network 150 may include, for example, any one or more of a personalarea network (PAN), a local area network (LAN), a campus area network(CAN), a metropolitan area network (MAN), a wide area network (WAN), abroadband network (BBN), the Internet, and the like. Further, thenetwork 150 can include, but is not limited to, any one or more ofnetwork topologies, including a bus network, a star network, a ringnetwork, a mesh network, a star-bus network, tree or hierarchicalnetwork.

The client device 120 may include the client application 115, which mayreceive the location information of the point of interest (e.g., POIlocation information 125 of FIG. 1) from the server 130 and provide theinformation (e.g., on a map) to the user 110. In one or moreimplementations, the client application 115 may be a single applicationor a number of applications that allow the user 110 to perform a numberof interactions with the client device 120, for example, receivenotifications from one or more servers (e.g., server 130), access one ormore social media, search a location on a map, mark a location on themap, send invitations to contacts (e.g., family, friends, etc.), createUGC (e.g., upload photos of or related to one or more points ofinterest, review, or rate one or more points of interest based on auser's experience with the point of interest, etc.), respond to eventssuch as a contact's check in at a place or comment on a review by acontact, and so on.

FIG. 3A is a map 300A illustrating examples of points of interest invicinity of a user location for user generated content creation, inaccordance with one or more aspects of the subject technology. The map300A shows a number of points of interest (e.g., POIA1, POIA2, andPOIA3) that are identified by the identification module 242 of FIG. 2,as being proximate to the client device 120 of FIG. 2 located in aposition shown as PA. one of the factors or criteria in identifying aplace as a point of interest, as mentioned above, may be the distancebetween the location of the point of interest and the location of theclient device 120 (e.g., PA). In one or more aspects, the identificationmodule 242 may consider all points of interest that are within a radiusR from the position PA. The radius R may depend on the mobility andspeed of mobility of the client device 120, which the server 130 candetermine based on the GPS information received from the client device120. For example, the radius R may be different if the client device 120is stationary or moving at 1.5 miles/hour (e.g., user 110 is walking) oris moving at a speed such as 60 miles/hr (e.g., user 110 is in avehicle, such as driving a vehicle). For instance, if the client device120 is stationary or moving at a walking speed, the radius R may be lessthan a mile, and if the client device 120 is moving at a typical speedof a vehicle, the radius R may more be longer, for example, less than orequal to 5 miles. As discussed above, the identification module mayinclude other factors such as user interest signals in making a decisionabout identifying a place as a point of interest.

FIG. 3B is a table 300B illustrating an example of scoring of points ofinterest of FIG. 3A for user generated content creation, in accordancewith one or more aspects of the subject technology. The scoring module244 of FIG. 2 may score a place identified as a point of interest basedon a number of parameters or criteria. For example, the parameters orcriteria may include an event associated with the identified place,being close to a place that the user 110 of FIG. 1 provided a goodreview for, being close to a place that a contact of the user 110provided a good review for, a distance between current location of theuser 110 with the identified place, and need for additional usergenerated content for the identified place, which can be determinedbased on lack of specific information for the identified one or morepoints of interest. For example, the server 130 or an operator theserver 130 may identify a number of places (e.g., points of interest) inthe data stores 140 or 230 of FIG. 2 that may lack a number ofinformation items such as photos, reviews, ratings, and so on.

Associated with each criterion (e.g., CR1, CR2, CR3, etc.), the scoringmodule 244 may consider a weighting function (e.g., W1, W2, W3, etc.).The weighting function may depend on the importance of the criterion indefining the final score. Further, depending on the level of fitting ofthe point of interest to the criterion, the scoring module 244 mayassign a raw score (e.g., a number SCR, such as SCR1 for CR1) between,for example, 0 and 10 (e.g., 0 indicating no fit and 10 indicating acomplete fit) to the point of interest. The final score for each pointof interest may be determined, for example, from:SCORE=SCR1*W1+SCR2*W2+SCR3*W3  (1)Where, SCORE is the final score, W1-W3 are weighing functions, andSCR1-SCR3 are raw scores corresponding to criteria CR1-CR3,respectively. Numerical examples for the raw scores, weightingfunctions, and the resulting final scores of each of the point of theidentified points of interests (e.g., POIA1, POIA2, and POIA3) are shownin table 300B, which is self explanatory. The most relevant point ofinterest in this case may be POIA2 with a score of 6.9, which is higherthan other scores.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating an example of a method forincentivizing user generated content creation, in accordance with one ormore aspects of the subject technology. The method 400 begins withoperation block 410, where the identification module (e.g., 242 of FIG.2) may identify one or more points of interest (e.g., POIA1-POIA3 ofFIG. 3A) for including in a notification (e.g., 160 of FIG. 1) to a user(e.g., 110 of FIG. 1) based at least on a location of a client device(e.g., PA of FIG. 3A) associated with the user or user interest signalsthat associate the points of interest with the user. At operation block420, the scoring module (e.g., 244 of FIG. 2) may score each of theidentified points of interest by comparing the user interest signals ofthe identified points of interest used to identify the points ofinterest. At operation block 430, the identification module may identifya most relevant point of interest (e.g., POIA2 of FIGS. 3A and 3B) fromthe scored one or more points of interest (e.g., POIA1-POIA3 of FIGS. 3Aand 3B).

At operation block 440, the notification module (e.g., 246 of FIG. 2)may determine a notification type that corresponds to the most relevantpoint of interest and the user interest signal associated with the mostrelevant point of interest. The notification module, at operation block450, may generate a notification (e.g., 160 of FIG. 1) including themost relevant point of interest and the user interest signal, accordingto the determined notification type. At operation block 460, thecommunication module (e.g., 210 of FIG. 2) may provide the generatednotification to the user (e.g., via the client device 120). Thenotification module, at operation block 470, may determine whether theuser acts on the provided notification. At operation block 480, thecommunication module may send a subsequent notification to the clientdevice asking the user to generate content for the most relevant pointof interest, in case the user acts on the provided notification.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating an example of a method 500 forincentivizing user generated content creation, in accordance with one ormore aspects of the subject technology. The method 500 begins atoperation block 510, where the identification module (e.g., 242 of FIG.2) may identify one or more points of interest (e.g., POIA1-POIA3 ofFIG. 3A) for including in a notification (e.g., 160 of FIG. 1) to a user(e.g., 110 of FIG. 1) based on metadata associated with the user. Atoperation block 520, the scoring module (e.g., 244 of FIG. 2) may scoreeach of the identified points of interest based on user interestsignals. Description of operation blocks 530-580 is similar to thedescription of operation blocks 430-480 of method 400 of FIG. 4, and isskipped here for brevity.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating an example of a method 600 forincentivizing user generated content creation, in accordance with one ormore aspects of the subject technology. The method 600 may use a usergenerated content (UGC) platform 610 (e.g., a social medium) a datastore 620 (e.g., a user interest profile data store, which can be thesame or a part of the data store 230 or 140 of FIG. 2), and a userlocation information file 630, which may be stored in memory 240 or inone of data stores 230 or 140. Method 600 may start by one or moretriggering events. The triggering event may include a friend interactionwith a place (e.g., a business or other potential point of interest) orproximity of the location of the user device 120 of FIG. 1 to a place,information for which is stored in a data store associated with theserver 130 of FIG. 1. The friend interaction with a place may includechecking in at a place that is of interest to the user 110 of FIG. 1 oruploading a photo to a UGC platform (e.g., one or more social mediasite), reviewing, or rating the place in the UGC platform. The server130 may continuously examine stored information related to places thatare near the user device 120 and determine whether any of the places isof interest to the user 110. The server 130 may make the determinationbased on interactions retrieved from the UGC platform or a user interestprofile 620. The interactions may include, for example, the user 110starred the place or marked the place as ‘want to go’; the place wasrecommended to the user 110 by a friend of the user 110; the place issimilar to the users taste (e.g., people similar o the user liked theplace); or a friend of the user 110 has been at the place recently.

At operation block 640, information (e.g., location information)relating to a number of points of interest (POIs) are retrieved fromdata store 620 and are considered for including in a notification (e.g.,160 of FIG. 1) to the user based on a location information (e.g.,obtained from the user location file 630) of a client device (e.g., 120)associated with the user (e.g., 110 of FIG. 1) or user interest signalsthat associate the points of interest with the user.

At operation block 650, the scoring module (e.g., 244 of FIG. 2) mayscore the POIs based on a number of factors including relevance to theuser, as discussed above with respect to FIG. 3B. At operation block660, for each POI determination is made whether to notify the user and,and if it was determined to notify the user, the type of thenotification is decided based on the most relevant point of interest tothe user and the user interest signal associated with the most relevantpoint of interest. For example, if the user interest signals indicatethat the user 110 cares about the event to be notified of, a more active(e.g., an ‘in-your-face’) notification may be provided, whereas forother events a more passive notification type may be considered. Atoperation block 680, the notification module (e.g., 246 of FIG. 2) maydetect whether the user acted on the notification. At operation block690, the communication module (e.g., 210 of FIG. 2) may send a UGCaction oriented notification to the user, as described above withrespect to FIG. 2.

The term “machine-readable storage medium” or “computer readable medium”as used herein refers to any medium or media that participates inproviding instructions or data to processor 220 of FIG. 2 for execution.Such a medium may take many forms, including, but not limited to,non-volatile media, volatile media, and transmission media. Non-volatilemedia include, for example, optical disks, magnetic disks, or flashmemory, such as data store devices 230 or 140 of FIG. 2. Volatile mediainclude dynamic memory, such as memory 240 of FIG. 2. Transmission mediainclude coaxial cables, copper wire, and fiber optics, including thewires that comprise bus 235 of FIG. 2. Common forms of machine-readablemedia include, for example, floppy disk, a flexible disk, hard disk,magnetic tape, any other magnetic medium, a CD-ROM, DVD, any otheroptical medium, punch cards, paper tape, any other physical medium withpatterns of holes, a RAM, a PROM, an EPROM, a FLASH EPROM, any othermemory chip or cartridge, or any other medium from which a computer canread. The machine-readable storage medium can be a machine-readablestorage device, a machine-readable storage substrate, a memory device, acomposition of matter effecting a machine-readable propagated signal, ora combination of one or more of them.

As used herein, the phrase “at least one of” preceding a series ofitems, with the terms “and” or “or” to separate any of the items,modifies the list as a whole, rather than each member of the list (i.e.,each item). The phrase “at least one of” does not require selection ofat least one item; rather, the phrase allows a meaning that includes atleast one of any one of the items, and/or at least one of anycombination of the items, and/or at least one of each of the items. Byway of example, the phrases “at least one of A, B, and C” or “at leastone of A, B, or C” each refer to only A, only B, or only C; anycombination of A, B, and C; and/or at least one of each of A, B, and C.

Terms such as “top,” “bottom,” “front,” “rear” and the like as used inthis disclosure should be understood as referring to an arbitrary frameof reference, rather than to the ordinary gravitational frame ofreference. Thus, a top surface, a bottom surface, a front surface, and arear surface may extend upwardly, downwardly, diagonally, orhorizontally in a gravitational frame of reference.

Furthermore, to the extent that the term “include,” “have,” or the likeis used in the description or the claims, such term is intended to beinclusive in a manner similar to the term “comprise” as “comprise” isinterpreted when employed as a transitional word in a claim.

A reference to an element in the singular is not intended to mean “oneand only one” unless specifically stated, but rather “one or more.” Allstructural and functional equivalents to the elements of the variousconfigurations described throughout this disclosure that are known orlater come to be known to those of ordinary skill in the art areexpressly incorporated herein by reference and intended to beencompassed by the subject technology. Moreover, nothing disclosedherein is intended to be dedicated to the public regardless of whethersuch disclosure is explicitly recited in the above description.

While this specification contains many specifics, these should not beconstrued as limitations on the scope of what may be claimed, but ratheras descriptions of particular implementations of the subject matter.Certain features that are described in this specification in the contextof separate embodiments can also be implemented in combination in asingle embodiment. Conversely, various features that are described inthe context of a single embodiment can also be implemented in multipleembodiments separately or in any suitable subcombination. Moreover,although features may be described above as acting in certaincombinations and even initially claimed as such, one or more featuresfrom a claimed combination can in some cases be excised from thecombination, and the claimed combination may be directed to asubcombination or variation of a subcombination.

Similarly, while operations are depicted in the drawings in a particularorder, this should not be understood as requiring that such operationsbe performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, orthat all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirableresults. In certain circumstances, multitasking and parallel processingmay be advantageous. Moreover, the separation of various systemcomponents in the aspects described above should not be understood asrequiring such separation in all aspects, and it should be understoodthat the described program components and systems can generally beintegrated together in a single software product or packaged intomultiple software products.

The subject matter of this specification has been described in terms ofparticular aspects, but other aspects can be implemented and are withinthe scope of the following claims. For example, the actions recited inthe claims can be performed in a different order and still achievedesirable results. As one example, the processes depicted in theaccompanying figures do not necessarily require the particular ordershown, or sequential order, to achieve desirable results. In certainimplementations, multitasking and parallel processing may beadvantageous. Other variations are within the scope of the followingclaims. These and other implementations are within the scope of thefollowing claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for requesting user-generated content,the method comprising: identifying, with at least one processor, one ormore points of interest for inclusion in a notification to a user basedat least on user interest signals that associate the points of interestwith the user; scoring, with the at least one processor, each of theidentified one or more points of interest based at least on the userinterest signals of the identified one or more points of interest usedto identify the one or more points of interest; selecting, with the atleast one processor, a point of interest based at least on the scoringof the identified one or more points of interest; generating, with theat least one processor, a notification including the selected point ofinterest and based at least on the user interest signal; providing, withthe at least one processor, the generated notification to the user;determining, with the at least one processor, whether the user acts onthe provided notification; and sending, with the at least one processor,a subsequent notification asking the user to generate content for theselected point of interest, in a case the user acts on the providednotification.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein scoring each of theidentified one or more points of interest is performed based on aplurality of parameters comprising: an event associated with theidentified one or more points of interest, being close to a place thatthe user provided a good review for, being close to a place that acontact of the user provided a good review for, a distance betweencurrent location of the user with the identified one or more points ofinterest, and need for additional user generated content for theidentified one or more points of interest, the need determined based onlack of specific information for the identified one or more points ofinterest.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein selecting the point ofinterest comprises: scoring each of the identified one or more points ofinterest based on a need for a user to generate content; and selecting apoint of interest with a greatest need for a user to generate content.4. The method of claim 2, wherein a score associated with one or morepoints of interest comprises a weighted sum of the plurality ofparameters, and wherein selecting a point of interest comprisesselecting the point of interest associated with the highest score. 5.The method of claim 4, further comprising determining a need for anotification to the user based on the score associated with a point ofinterest exceeding a threshold.
 6. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: determining a notification type that corresponds to theselected point of interest and the user interest signal associated withthe selected point of interest, the notification type comprising anemail notification, a short message service (SMS) notification, an audionotification, or a knowledge card notification, and generating thenotification according to the notification type.
 7. The method of claim1, wherein determining whether the user acts on the providednotification comprises determining whether the user performs at leastone of visiting the selected point of interest, spending time in theselected point of interest, opening the notification, copying portionsof content of the notification, or performing a search related to thenotification.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein asking the user togenerate content for the most selected point of interest comprisesprompting the user to interact with the selected point of interest, andwherein interacting with the selected point of interest comprisesperforming at least one of: recommending, uploading a picture of, usingsocial media to check in or comment on the selected point of interest,or respond to a comment or check in by a contact of the user.
 9. Themethod of claim 1, wherein: user interest signals comprise: anindication of an interaction with the point of interest by a contactassociated with the user, an indication of a user's proximity to thepoint of interest, and an association with a user's online interesthistory, and wherein an interaction with the point of interest by thecontact associated with the user comprises at least one of: uploading aphoto of the point of interest, checking in the point of interest,reviewing the point of interest, or rating the point of interest basedon a user's experience with the point of interest.
 10. A system forincentivizing creation of user-generated content, the system comprising:memory to store instructions; and at least one processor configured toexecute the instructions to: identify one or more points of interest forinclusion in a notification to a user based at least on metadataassociated with the user; score each of the identified one or morepoints of interest based on user interest signals; select a point ofinterest based at least on the score of the identified one or morepoints of interest; generate a notification including the selected pointof interest and based at least on the user interest signal; provide thegenerated notification to the user; and send a subsequent notificationasking the user to generate content for the selected point of interest,in a case the user acts on the provided notification.
 11. The system ofclaim 10, wherein: the metadata associated with the user comprises alocation of a client device associated with the user and user interestsignals that associate the points of interest with the user, and theuser interest signals comprise the user interest signals of theidentified one or more points of interest used to identify the one ormore points of interest.
 12. The system of claim 11, wherein theprocessor is further configured to execute the instructions to ask theuser to generate content for the selected point of interest by promptingthe user to interact with the selected point of interest, and whereininteracting with the selected point of interest comprises performing atleast one of: recommending, uploading a picture of, using social mediato check in and/or comment on the selected point of interest, or respondto a comment or check in by a contact of the user.
 13. The system ofclaim 10, wherein the at least one processor is further configured toexecute the instructions to score each of the identified one or morepoints of interest by associating a score to each of the identified oneor more points of interest based on a plurality of parameterscomprising: an event associated with the identified one or more pointsof interest, being close to a place that the user provided a good reviewfor, being close to a place that a contact of the user provided a goodreview for, a distance between current location of the user with theidentified one or more points of interest, and need for additional usergenerated content for the identified one or more points of interest, theneed being determined based on lack of specific information for theidentified one or more points of interest.
 14. The system of claim 13,wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute theinstructions to select the point of interest from the scored one or morepoints of interest by using the score associated with the scored one ormore points of interest, wherein the score associated with the scoredone or more points of interest comprises a weighted sum of the pluralityof parameters, and wherein the at least one processor is furtherconfigured to execute instructions comprising selecting the point ofinterest associated with the highest score.
 15. The system of claim 13,wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute theinstructions to determine a need for a notification to the user based onthe score associated with a point of interest exceeding a threshold. 16.The system of claim 10, wherein the at least one processor is furtherconfigured to execute instructions to determine a notification type thatcorresponds to the selected point of interest and the user interestsignal associated with the selected point of interest, the notificationtype comprising an email notification, a short message service (SMS)notification, an audio notification, or a Now knowledge cardnotification, the processor is further configured to generate thenotification according to the notification type.
 17. The system of claim10, wherein the processor is further configured to execute theinstructions to determine whether the user acts on the providednotification by determining whether the user performs at least one ofvisiting the selected point of interest, spending time in the selectedpoint of interest, opening the notification, copying portions of contentof the notification, or performing a search related to the notification.18. The system of claim 10, wherein: user interest signals comprise: anindication of an interaction with the point of interest by a contactassociated with the user, an indication of a user's proximity to thepoint of interest, and an association with a user's online interesthistory, and wherein: an interaction with the point of interest by thecontact associated with the user comprises at least one of: uploading aphoto of the point of interest, checking in the point of interest,reviewing the point of interest, or rating the point of interest basedon a user's experience with the point of interest.
 19. A non-transitorymachine-readable medium comprising instructions stored therein, whichwhen executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operationscomprising: identifying one or more points of interest for inclusion ina notification to a user based at least on user interest signals thatassociate the points of interest with the user; scoring each of theidentified one or more points of interest based at least on the userinterest signals of the identified one or more points of interest usedto identify the one or more points of interest; selecting a point ofinterest based at least on the scoring of the identified one or morepoints of interest; generating a notification including the selectedpoint of interest and based at least on the user interest signal;providing the generated notification to the user; determining whetherthe user acts on the provided notification; and sending a subsequentnotification asking the user to generate content for the selected pointof interest, in a case the user acts on the provided notification. 20.The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 19, wherein scoringeach of the identified one or more points of interest is performed basedon a plurality of parameters comprising: an event associated with theidentified one or more points of interest, being close to a place thatthe user provided a good review for, being close to a place that acontact of the user provided a good review for, a distance betweencurrent location of the user with the identified one or more points ofinterest, and need for additional user generated content for theidentified one or more points of interest, the need determined based onlack of specific information for the identified one or more points ofinterest.